A nutritious vegan salad with quinoa, roasted vegetables and chopped nuts with a mint yoghurt dressing. This nutty quinoa salad is full of plant based protein making it a super filling lunch.
The salad
I don’t usually like to use trendy terms, but for this salad I will make an exception; this really is a superfood salad in that it is packed full of flavour and texture. Broccoli and carrots are roasted until they reach crunchy perfection before being folded in mounds of tender quinoa. The addition of toasted walnuts and almonds add a lovely nutty warmth to the salad. But what really makes this nutty quinoa salad a knockout is the crumbled kale. Ready in only 10 minutes; the crispy kale adds an earthy, salty punch to the salad.
The dressing
The mint yoghurt dressing is really straightforward to make. I’ve added plenty of fresh mint and lemon to make the dressing extra zesty and minty. Use plain soya yoghurt to create a mild tasting dressing. I prefer to use Alpro plain soya yoghurt as it makes a great base for many dressings, and also helps to boost the protein content of meals.
This salad is packed full of plant based protein, but most importantly it is an exploration of taste and texture, demonstrating that vegan food is anything but bland.
Leave a comment and let me know how you get on making this nutty quinoa salad. I’d love to see your creations over on instagram!
More healthy vegan recipes
Nutty quinoa salad
Ingredients
- 75 g quinoa
- 125 g broccoli chopped into florets
- 50 g kale
- 1 carrot diced
- 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
- Salt and pepper to season
- 20 g walnuts roughly chopped
- 20 g almonds roughly chopped
- 20 g sunflower seeds
For the mint dressing:
- 75 g plain no sugar soya yoghurt
- 1 tbsp mint leaves finely chopped
- 1.5 tsp lemon juice
- 0.5 tsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven to 200C/ 180C fan / gas 5. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
- Rinse the quinoa in cold water. Add to a saucepan along with 225mls of boiling water. Return to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover with a lid. Cook for 20 minutes, then turn off the heat and allow to rest for a further 5 minutes.
- While the quinoa is cooking, prepare the vegetables by rinsing and drying them thoroughly. Drizzle over the oil and season well with salt and pepper. Mix to ensure the vegetables are well coated in oil and then turn out the broccoli and carrots onto 1 roasting tray and the kale onto another.
- Place both trays in the oven, roast the kale for 10 minutes and then remove from the oven. Roast the broccoli and carrot for a further 5 minutes.
- Allow the vegetables to cool slightly before slicing the carrots into small diced cubes and roughly chopping the kale and broccoli into bitesize chunks.
- Dry toast the nuts in a non stick frying pan over a moderate heat for 5 minutes. Meanwhile combine the ingredients for the mint dressing in a bowl and whisk until smooth and silky.
- In a salad bowl combine the quinoa, roasted vegetables, toasted nuts and sunflower seeds. Serve into two bowls and spoon over the yoghurt dressing. This salad can be served either warm or cool, the choice is yours!